form (*dūfe) is not attested, cf. dūfedoppa below. It is most likely to have been common Germanic. dēor: 'animal', 'beast'. Dēor is the etymon of English 'deer', although dēor as 'deer' is attested as early as around 893 by Alfred the Great. At some point in the Middle English period the more specific meaning of 'deer' became common, with the original meaning becoming lost by the end of the period. Compare German Tier, Dutch dier, Swedish djur, Danish and Norwegian dyr, Icelandic dýr. dūfedoppa: 'pelican'. The word pelican was borrowed into Middle English, ultimately from Ancient Greek. ened: 'duck', 'drake'. 'Drake' first appeared around 1300 and ened was lost thereafter. The AHD says the origin is unknown. Old High German antrahho seems to be a combination of ant (cognate of Old English ened) and trahho (cognate of drake), but the OED holds that the conjectured cognate in Old English (unattested *andrake) "has no basis of fact". The word ened likely has a PIE origin, compare Latin anas, Lithuanian antis and Old Greek nēssa ('duck'). 'Duck' comes from a theoretical Old English word *duce, presumably from the verb ducan ('duck', 'dive'). Compare with the German Ente, Dutch eend, Common Scandinavian and. fifalde: 'butterfly'. Old English had the word butorflēoge (of dubious origin, although the ultimately Greek word "butter" is the first element) as early as 1000 which overtook the Germanic fifalde. Compare with Old High German fîfaltarâ, German Falter, Old Saxon vivoldara, Southern Dutch vijfwouter, Old Norse fifrildi, Icelandic fiðrildi, Swedish fjäril. firgenbucca: 'ibex'. 'Ibex' is borrowed from Latin ibex originally written ibecks in Edward Topsell's "The historie of foure-footed beastes" (1607). It is a compound of firgen ('wooded height', 'mountain') (compare with Gothic fairguni ('mountain'), Old High German Fergunna ('Ore Mountains')) and bucca ('buck') (compare with modern German Steinbock, Dutch (alpen) steenbok ('ibex'), English stonebuck). gesceaft, gesceap: 'creature'. Gesceap, the etymon of English 'shape', is documented as far back as around 1050. It had many meanings in Old English: 'creature', 'creation', 'structure', 'form', 'figure', 'configuration', 'pudendum', 'decree' and 'destiny'. 'Creature', ultimately from Latin, was borrowed around 1300 before the borrowing of the word 'create'. Gesceaft ('creation', 'origin', 'constitution', 'nature', 'species') has the same etymological root as gesceap. It is documented as early as 888 and occurs with this meaning in various forms as late as around 1579, as schaft. Compare to Dutch past participle geschapen for the verb scheppen ('to